Integrating with Looker

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated August 1, 2024
  • 4 minutes to read

    • Integrating your Software Asset Management application with the Looker, a Google Cloud application enables you to track your software subscriptions and to reclaim unused licenses.

    Important:
    Minimize security risks and protect information by granting access only to the necessary user or API permissions.
    Table 1. Minimal user permissions
    Process Required user role in the Box application Authentication scopes
    Download subscriptions User with see_users permission None
    Pull user activity User with see_users permission None
    Reclaim subscription admin None

    Configure Looker API key settings

    Configure API key settings to manage and retrieve Looker API keys.

    Before you begin

    Looker Role required: admin

    Procedure

    1. Log in to your Looker (https://<instancename>.looker.com/) instance.
    2. Select the gear icon to open Admin settings.
    3. Select Users > Open the admin user account.
    4. Select Edit API3 Keys under the Profile tab.
    5. Select New API3 Key.
    6. Copy the Client ID and Client secret for later use.

    Create a Looker connection

    Create a connection between your Looker applications and your ServiceNow instance so that your instance can retrieve user data from your applications.

    Before you begin

    ServiceNow Role required: admin

    Procedure

    1. Log in to your ServiceNow instance.
    2. Navigate to Connection & Credentials > Connection & Credentials Aliases.
    3. Locate your Looker connection and select Create New Connection & Credential.
    4. In the dialog box, fill in the fields.
      Table 2. Create Connection and Credential dialog box
      Field Value
      Connection Information
      Connection Name Name of the Looker connection. This field populates automatically.
      Connection URL URL for the connection. This field is automatically set to https://<instance name>.looker.com.
      Credential Information
      OAuth Client ID Client ID that you generated while configuring the Looker API settings.
      OAuth Client Secret Client Secret that you generated while configuring the Looker API settings.
      OAuth Redirect URL https://<instance name>/oauth_redirect.do, where instance name is the name of your ServiceNow instance.
    5. Select Create and Get OAuth Token.
      Note:
      For the role required to perform this step, refer to the Minimal user permissions table.

    Create a Looker integration profile

    Create a Looker integration profile to track software subscriptions and optimize licensing for your Looker solutions.

    Before you begin

    The Software Asset Management - SaaS License Management plugin (sn_sam_saas_int) must be installed from the ServiceNow Store.

    ServiceNow Role required: admin or sam_integrator

    About this task

    If you are using Software Asset Workspace, the option to create the Looker integration profile in Core UI is inactive.

    Procedure

    1. Navigate to the integration profile.
      InterfaceAction
      Core UI
      1. Navigate to All > Software Asset > SaaS License > Direct Integration Profiles.
      2. Select New.
      3. Select Looker Integration Profile.
      Software Asset Workspace
      1. Navigate to License operations > User Subscriptions > Direct integration profiles.
      2. Select New.
      3. Select Looker from the drop-down list.
      4. Select Continue.
    2. On the form, fill in the fields.
      Table 3. Integration profile form
      Field Value
      Display name Name of the integration profile. For example, Looker integration.
      Connection & Credential Connection and credential alias for the Looker spoke. This field is automatically set to sn_looker_spoke.Looker.
      Status Status of the integration profile.
      • If you have not published the integration profile, this field is automatically set to  Draft.
      • If you have already published the integration profile, this field is automatically set to  Published.
      Profile type Type of integration profile. This field is automatically set to Looker Subscription.
    3. On the Download Subscription Subflow tab, verify that the Subflow field is set to Looker Download Subscriptions.
      You can view events performed by individual users up to one year prior to the current date. For more information, see Review a software reclamation rule.
      Note:
      Software Asset Management pulls the events from the time that you start downloading user subscriptions irrespective of the profile creation date.
    4. On the Reclaim Subscription Subflow tab, verify that the Subflow field is set to Looker Reclaim Subscription.
    5. Select Save.
      A draft integration profile is created. The integration profile uses the Looker Download Subscriptions and Looker Reclaim Subscription subflows to retrieve user data from the Looker application.
    6. Select Save.
    7. After the page reloads, select Publish.

    What to do next

    After the integration connects, your ServiceNow instance automatically creates software models, reclamation rules, and software subscriptions that are refreshed daily.

    If you want to set up multiple integration profiles with unique connections, create child aliases to manage different configurations and settings for each integration profile. For more information, see Create a child alias to set up multiple integration profiles.

    Review all automatically generated reclamation rules to reclaim user subscriptions. For more information, see Review a software reclamation rule.

    Create software entitlements for the automatically generated software models to track used software against owned software.
    Reconciliation also runs on your subscriptions as a scheduled job or on-demand. You can view your reconciliation results in the License Workbench (Software Asset Management classic application) or the License usage view (Software Asset Workspace). Use these results to determine your license compliance position and to remediate any non-compliance.